Ian and Steph recently got their hands on the Red Hood: Outlaws Vol. 1 trade paperback from Webtoon/DC. What did they think? Does it translate well to a traditional comic book format? We’ll see.
Steph: Hihi!!! How you doing Ian?
Ian: Doing well! How are you doing, Steph?
Steph: Not bad…definitely been reading too many Webtoons lately…if that’s a thing.
Ian: Not for DC fans, for sure!
Steph: Well, the DC series have been on a break, or the different runs have finished their course, but Red Hood: Outlaws just released volume 1 of the TPB version of the Webtoon on March 5th, and I can’t wait to talk about it!
Ian: Me neither! This is quite a gorgeous collection of the first 11 episodes of the series, and the really rich, painted style of Nico Bascunan and the wonderful art team looks great in the hard copy format!
Steph: Absolutely! Since you brought it up, let’s start with the look of the book first! I really love the art style, and it looks so good blown up. I will say, as much as I love my Batman: Wayne Family Adventures TPB, the blown-up panels look…blown up. The lines are thicker and the images are pretty pixelated. But the images in this book look so good! Even full-page panels look amazing. You can almost not tell it wasn’t made to be this large.
Ian: Agreed! There are one or two pages where some of the smaller detailed panels look a bit more washed out or lower resolution, but in general, the color team’s very saturated colors and Bascunan’s figure work really translates well to the page from the phone. I especially like how each character really has personality in every pose, enhanced by the coloring and background artist. Plus the action is really exciting. Wayne Family Adventures is not an action series – it’s slice of life with a backdrop of superhero-ing, but Red Hood: Outlaws is definitely a full superhero adventure comedy, and the adventure action is on full display with Jason’s fighting, Artemis’ strength, and Bizarro’s powers.
Steph: I agree. The action, the grit, but also keeping the characters pretty, is all done so well. I will say, one tiny issue I had, with my print anyway, was that the flashback scene where Robin/Jason is beating up Two-Face had a whole page without text in the speech bubbles. I looked it up on Webtoon, and it wasn’t like that in the original comic. So I wrote the words in with a thin-tipped sharpie.
Ian: Steph clearly needs credit as letterer!
Steph: No. I did pretty bad.
Ian: looks good to me!
Steph: What about the story? I thought it started pretty strong! It was a great hook for a new Webtoon, especially.
Ian: We basically get two main arcs, I would argue – the attack on Dinosaur Island, and then the Confrontation with the Justice League (really, just the Trinity). I liked that things that seemed weird and like “oh, it’s just an AU” like Frank Bertinelli being alive turned out instead to be plot points! It was a pretty nicely constructed story for all three characters, giving each character a lot of backstory and emotion.
Steph: For sure! I liked that the Outlaw Trinity (that’s what I’m calling them anyway) is set up as being more mercenaries. That makes them disliked by the heroes, but not outright villains, either.
Ian: Agreed! I think it’s a good, slightly less edgy status quo than “murder hobos” in the Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws run which created this dynamic. Not to take away from the brilliance of the idea in that run but giving another creative team the chance to refine the idea and form it into a longform story on their own was a really good way to polish it up
Steph: And the subtle little flashbacks or bit of conversation helps set up their relationship without being obvious about it or putting it all out there at once.
I was a little confused. It does seem unfair that Batman puts just 3 people in charge of what is normally done by a small army of heroes. But I think that the Outlaws are just being monitors on the Justice League Watchtower for a month, right?
They do have to handle the issues that arise, but they aren’t expected to fix situation on Earth AND in the universe, right? Just direct threats to Earth from space?
Ian: I think we’re going to have to wait and see. I read a LOT of Justice League titles, but I do remember seeing quite a few issues where parts of the team goes off and there’s just one or two people on monitor duty who then deal with the crises that arise.
It is funny to see Artemis – who probably has at least the power of a large tank, and Bizarro, who is probably at least a significant fraction of Superman’s power, and then, of course, you have the Batman-trained Red Hood, who…shoots stuff. hahaBut that’s just the nature of teams in superhero comics. It just amuses me to see it popping up again.
Steph: It is fun and delightfully ironic. And I do love the flashbacks to each of their history telling why or how they don’t fit the mold they’re “supposed” to fit in. The Artemis fan page having less followers than Diana’s was pretty funny.
Ian: As a Wonder Woman fan, I really liked the way Artemis as Wonder Woman fought against the social media and PR obsessed “handlers”. I’m really curious to know what this universe’s Wonder Woman actually does with these forces herself.
Steph: Where there any small details that jumped out at you that you found extra amusing as a DC/TBU comic book fan?
Ian: Of course the semi-crossover with Wayne Family Adventures, or at least the Wayne Family, with Damian and Tim playing video games against Jason and Bizarro! That was just so funny and sweet!
Steph: Yes! I was going to say that.
Ian: Bizarro’s backstory was quite tragic, though I don’t know a ton about various versions of him – he seems to have a lot of different origins. But this Webtoon Bizarro definitely was a good one!
Steph: I loved that Jason used the line “I was a total Dick Grayson to you.” That was 1. a growth moment, admitting guilt of pride, 2. hilarious.
Ian: Completely!
Steph: And I love the sweet and tender moments between the three of them, as well as the snarky comments, showing that they’re a family unit. It’s pretty great. As someone who did like the Rebirth version of this team, this makes me so happy.
I loved all the comments on sleeves. I thought that was a funny thread to follow.
Ian: Speaking of family, there’s a strong hint that Jason and Artemis are more than friends! What do you think about that particular hint, and do you have any desires for where it might go?
(I personally think it’s very sweet, and hope it works out!)
Steph: I love it too. I really ship them hard. I think she’s a great compliment for him.
Probably not great for keeping watch, though.
Ian: Yup! I hope they can both help each other grow out from under their more popular counterpart’s shadows! Resentment is a bad foundation for a relationship
Steph: Did you ever finish the original Webtoon run?
Ian: I did! I quite enjoyed it, and look forward to rereading in the paper format!
Steph: Me too!
Ian: I think a consistent comment of ours in Wayne Family Adventures is a desire to see ongoing storylines. How do you think Patrick Young handled the ongoing storyline in the Webtoon format? Do you think he’s reaching for the same audience or a different one from WFA?
Steph: Probably different, though I’m sure there’s tons of overlap. I know some people don’t want action, and some people don’t like “pointless” episodic series. I think the series lost direction along the way, and I think it went a little off the rails, but I still enjoyed the characters and how the weird story was being told.
Ian: I think that’s part of the danger of the more “formless” soap operatic storytelling that a serialized but not episodic story faces. Something I’ve criticized even in really popular and mostly well done shows like Netflix’s Daredevil.
I think breaking things down into arcs with rising and falling action, with smaller pieces building towards the big finale is the best way to do a serialized story, but of course, that was the standard when I got into television in the early 2000s. 😄
Steph: I know we’re not really giving ratings to these stories, but overall, I think I would say it’s…REALLY GOOD! Great art, fun characters written well, informative but interesting flashbacks, and an engaging story…and some romance to boot!
Ian: Definitely! I quite enjoyed it – though I think for me personally, WFA gets a slight edge. (The inclusion of a certain purple clad heroine might have something to do with that, though 😉 ).
If Red Hood: Outlaws wants to come back for season 2 with Stephanie Brown, I’ll be there from day one!
Steph: Lol. I’m sure you would. Well Ian, I love chatting Webtoons with you! We should do this again for the next Volume!
Ian: Definitely! I eagerly await our next chat!
Editor’s Note: You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue trade through Amazon.
